First published 2000
Lionel Essrog calls himself Brooklyn's Human Freakshow. His Tourette's makes him bark and count and twist words in ways that startle people. He works with three other guys from St. Vincent's orphanage at Frank Minna's car service and detective business. Frank runs small-time mob operations, but Lionel doesn't care if the work breaks laws. Frank is the King of Brooklyn and life without him makes no sense. Then someone stabs Frank to death. One of Lionel's partners gets arrested. The other two fight over who takes Frank's place. Frank's wife disappears from town. Lionel's ordered world falls apart. He can barely hold normal conversations, but now he has to solve Frank's murder. The words jumble in his head as he tries to follow the case's tangled threads.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, crime, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Brooklyn
Period: 20th-century
311 pages · Paperback · Vintage
Content warnings: mental-illness